Games to Play
by luvsanime02
Summary: Bucky's not at all surprised to see Clint and Natasha sitting on the Whomping Willow's upper branches.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Marvel comics or characters or movies, and am making no money off of this fic.

**AN: **Written for the June 28th Winterhawk Mandatory Fun Day prompt: Hogwarts!AU.

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**Games to Play** by luvsanime02

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Bucky Barnes is probably the only student outside right now who isn't currently staring at Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff in shock and disbelief. Not that Bucky isn't watching, but he knows the both of them. So when Bucky had walked outside this morning during his break and looked over at the gathering crowd to see that his boyfriend and his boyfriend's best friend were actually sitting on the very top branches of the Whomping Willow, he'd only shaken his head in mild exasperation.

He'd still walked closer to the tree. As near as someone sane would come to the Whomping Willow's swinging branches, anyway. He knows that he doesn't have to, but Bucky still feels better being close by, just in case. Bucky might not be in time to help either of them if they fall, but still. It's not like Bucky can just walk away while his Gryffindor boyfriend is doing his best to live up to his House's infamy.

Bucky feels someone come up to stand beside him, and doesn't even have to look over in order to know who it is. "You should ask Natasha out right now," Bucky says to Steve. "At least it'll take her a few minutes to get down from there, so you'll have plenty of time to run for it if she decides to kill you in retaliation."

Steve looks like he's seriously considering doing that when Bucky glances at his best friend's face, which would be hilarious. Eventually, though, Steve shakes his head. "She wouldn't appreciate an audience," he says, sounding regretful.

Steve's right, from what Bucky knows of her. Natasha can be a very private person. Still, Steve needs to ask her out already. Where does his famed Gryffindor bullheadedness go whenever he has to talk to a pretty girl?

Why is Bucky friends with these insane Gryffindors again? Well, Natasha is a Slytherin, but she's also best friends with Clint, so she doesn't count. She's much too willing to go along with whatever insane ideas Clint comes up with, if only because she finds others' reactions to their antics so amusing.

Clint waves at him right then, grinning at Bucky, and Bucky waves back, helpless to keep a returning smile from appearing on his face. The Whomping Willow doesn't seem to mind Clint and Natasha sitting up there, miraculously. Its branches are waving gently back and forth. Bucky suspects that they've drugged it somehow.

"Professor Sprout's not going to be happy about this," he mutters, because his Head of House is actually terrifying when she's angry, and no one ever believes Hufflepuffs when they say that. Bucky still shudders when he remembers the verbal lashing she gave them all after that party in one of the greenhouses last year. She'd smiled cheerily at them the whole time while she'd listed all of the different plants in that greenhouse that could have killed them if they'd introduced the plants to alcohol. Or chocolate. And how she had expected her House to show at least a little bit of common sense, and how maybe she'd have to start some demonstrations right then and there, and then she'd leave them all to deal with wrangling the plants back into order and sobriety without the use of their wands, and…

Yeah, no need to upset Professor Sprout. Never again.

"She's in Hogsmeade this morning," Steve points out, which is more of a relief to Bucky than he wants to admit. "Why aren't we in Hogsmeade?"

Steve wants the four of them to be in Hogsmeade because then he can pretend that he's on a double-date with Natasha. Bucky rolls his eyes. "Because my boyfriend's stuck up in a tree," he replies, though he's positive that Clint isn't actually stuck up there.

As though to demonstrate, Clint suddenly stands up straight and jumps off of his branch. Bucky has one second to get out his wand and aim, ready to slow Clint's descent or cushion his fall or _something_, but then Clint's pulling out his broom from his pocket, enlarging it, and flying away to cheers from the other students out on the grounds.

Bucky lets out a sigh of relief, and Steve pats his shoulder. Steve is pretending to be commiserating, but it's difficult for him to seem sincere while he's also trying to stifle his laughter.

And then Natasha jumps off of the branch, too, only she doesn't have a broom with her and she doesn't cast any spells, and Bucky thinks that this is going to end very badly right before Steve sprints forward and uses his body to stop Natasha's fall.

Because Merlin forbid that the Gryffindor remembers to use a spell. Natasha stands back up calmly, as though she didn't almost go splat against the ground, offers Steve a smile and a hand to help pull him up, and Steve goes bright red as he accepts. Then Natasha kisses Steve, right there in front of everyone, and it looks like she doesn't mind an audience, after all.

Bucky rolls his eyes again, because it's about time, and then he looks around for his boyfriend. He spots Clint flying around the Quidditch pitch, doing some lazy loops, and Bucky wordlessly summons his own broom from the Hufflepuff team's locker room. He flies over to join Clint, and the two of them spend a nice morning alone together. Let Steve and Natasha have their own Hogsmeade date for once, instead of crashing Bucky and Clint's all of the time.

The sky is blue, and Clint's smile is warm and fond, and Bucky feels as though he could fly like this forever, honestly.


End file.
